Can’t afford steak? Let them eat lobster
That filet mignon of the sea, lobster, is cheap and plentiful right now. Enjoy—and help out the lobster industry of New England.
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
That filet mignon of the sea, lobster, is cheap and plentiful right now. Enjoy—and help out the lobster industry of New England.
Yeah!!!, I have been watching these, getting ready to order here: I prefer the tails over the whole:
http://www.lobsters-online.com/lobstertails.html
Until sometime in the mid-1800s only poor people in New England ate lobster. The rich were not going to eat that bottom-dwelling sea insect! Yuck!
So, I have to ask, is the economy under Obama getting that bad that we are going to revert to eating habits of the mid-19th century?
Lobster it is. My dad’s a Canuck. Both he and my mom Mainiac born and raised. Lots of memories on my grandfather’s lake. Claws as big as man’s hand. New England Lobster is great. Kind of like a big tasty cockroach. Try sucking the meat out of their little legs. It’s sweet.
Lobstering History
Long ago, lobsters were so plentiful that Native Americans used them to fertilize their fields and to bait their hooks for fishing. In colonial times, lobsters were considered “poverty food.” They were harvested from tidal pools and served to children, to prisoners, and to indentured servants, who exchanged their passage to America for seven years of service to their sponsors. In Massachusetts, some of the servants finally rebelled. They had it put into their contracts that they would not be forced to eat lobster more than three times a week.
Time for Lobster Rolls. Yum.
Dear Neo,
Just in case you don’t think people pay attention to your blog I was trying to think of a good birthday prez for my daughter and her husband and after I read this I went to Google and hit “Shopping” and now she and her husband will have a half-dozen Maine lobster tails (and “jumbo” shrimp cocktail with sauce) for her birthday.
P.S. What a wonderful idea! Thanks.
re: Vieux Charles Says
Yeah. I miss the time when fresh oysters were the food of poor people. Although once in New Orleans I was grousing about buying oysters in a 100 count box and a girl who worked for the seafood board said why don’t you go over to Shell Beach in St. Bernard if you want oysters and so I did. It was oyster-lover Valhalla. I got a sack of oysters that I needed help getting in the trunk of the car. Two gross and then some. I had to go out and buy extra ice chests.
I went around the neighborhood offering free oysters.
Some people said, “Fine, as long as they’re fried.”
Some people said, “They’re good in oyster-and-artichoke dressing.”
So I ate more than two gross of fresh oysters.
I got my trace minerals that week.
I love lobster and their little fresh water cousins, the crawfish.
“crawfish”, “crayfish”, “crawdad”, and “mudbug”- all names for the same animal—but is there any other name in English for “lobster”?
I’m a little annoyed. I just got back from Boston where I found that lobster rolls were still outrageously priced…more than upwards of $14 (for lobster salad on a hot dog roll, basically). The best price I saw was about $10 at a seafood shack in South Boston.
Next time I am in New England I am determined to try the hot lobster rolls that are popular along the Connecticut coast. Nothing but lobster meat (no mayo!) and drizzled butter on a grilled roll.
I’m one of those rare people who doesn’t care for lobster, so it’s a bit easier for me to ask: if the lobster population has been held down by heavy fishing, isn’t it a good thing if the take is cut down for a year or two?
jon baker asks
…is there any other name in English for “lobster”?
When you hear a Down-Easterner say “lobster” it becomes apparent that “lobster” is the only name that’ll do.
The odd thing is that lobsters used to be so plentiful, they were considered nuisances, as well food for the destitute (not just poor, but indentured servants, orphans, etc.). Time was that lobster “canners” would consider a 5 pound lobster small, and a 2 pounder would actually be discarded. Lobsters were so frowned upon a long time ago that, for humanitarian reasons, Massachusettes passed a law forbidding the feeding of lobster to prison inmates more than twice a week; it was considered cruel to do so. There is also a revolution by servants back in early US history where they demanded that their contracts include clauses forbidding lobster meals for servants occuring more than 3 times a week.
It’s funny how things change. Venison (deer meat) used to be the meat of royalty, with severe penalties for commoners encroaching upon that game. Nowadays, the modern caricature of a deer meat consumer is a hilljack with an old pickup truck. If it gets to the point where we start forbidding deer meat to prisoners and having people rebel at the thought of eating it, we’ll have truly reached the opposite pole.
Sadly, my body rebels at the merest morsel of lobster. After enjoying them for some years, I had a lobster on Cape Cod and within two hours was deathly sick, and remained so for days. Now even a bit of lobster in pasta sauce ruins the remainder of the day, at least. So all other seafood will deplete faster because of displacement in my diet, heh.
As a former seafood chef in New England and the Chesapeake region for many years, I can now no longer bear the sight of whole, kicking live lobsters and crabs. I can tolerate, even relish a meal of crabcakes or lobster pie, but the sight of the whole bugs throws me off my feed, especially if I have to boil them alive myself. Most particularly, I was bothered by having to cook live soft crabs; cut off their faces, wrench out their gills, scoop out the ovaries, and fry them still writhing in the skillet. Similarly, splitting live lobsters for broiling is soul-killing after a while. I suppose I’m too soft-hearted for the trade. I wouldn’t make a good executioner. If you could just waterboard the lobster, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.